Does anyone know if you need any special equipment to operate freesat? Sorry, I am rather ignorant about this sort of thing!! Would a freesat machine from the UK operate in Portugal?

Hi Chris,
Yes, Freesat does work here in Portugal without any special equipment. All you need is a suitably sized satellite dish - usually around 1.4 meters - and plug it in.
Cheers,

Allan

Thanks for the info

I'm not very technical but isn't a box also needed? I had freesat 10 years ago and the satellite signal had to enter the TV through a box. Lots of channels but very, very few in English and I rarely used it.

There is one range of TV's available in UK Panasonic which have the freesat decoder built in. I think they are all plasma and are not cheap upwards of £1100 for the smallest but very good picture.

Make sure if you go down this route that you get a TV with Freesat built in and not Freeview built in. They sound similar but they are different. You can buy a Freesat box but a Sky digibox will give exactly the same programmes but a slightly different Electronic Program Guide

Hi Chris

First of all a Freesat box connected to an existing satellite dish that is capable of picking up Sky transmissions will work in Portugal. The next question is which one to buy? You can get a freesat box for about £50 from Comet, Maplin etc for standard definition digital TV however if you want HD then you will pay about £150.00. Freesat are broadcasting certain programs in HD but not all. The other consideration, is your TV. Is it HD ready or just digital meaning that if it was connected to an aerial in the UK, it would pick up digital broadcasts.

A standard Analogue TV with a freesat or freeview box will receive digital programs but is not HD ready. With regards to the comment about the TV with a HD Freesat tuner incorporated into it, this is the Panasonic Model TX-P42G10B which I purchased 2 weeks ago and is great (£744 from Amazon) however until I get a HD subscription which I am at present doing with my provider it will only give me a digital quality picture not an HD picture. However if I connect it to my redundant SKY dish the HD ready Freesat recreceiverll give me full a full HD picture but only on the channels that broadcast in HD everything else will only be in digital quality.

Hope this is not too confusing or nerdy.

JohnB

Costco are now selling a HD Freesat box for about £85 plus vat,which is a nice small compact unit with a remote. Ideal for use abroad with existing HD ready tv.

Ken.

Thanks everyone bought a Humax unit when I was in the UK from Amazon.

Hi Chris

So don't keep it all to yourself. Did you buy a HD or standard type, did it set up ok, are you pleased with it and which channels can you get?

JohnB

Just purchased this Grundig one from Costco,am over in spain in September so will give it a try. Hopefully HD tv from now on?.

Ken.

We are not in the house at the moment so haven't set it up and HD!!!!

With a Freesat HD receiver you an get BBCHD and ITV HD - BBC HD being on the same frequency as BBC1 Channels Islands....with no subscription.

Even with a Sky HD receiver you can get BBCHD and ITV HD with no subscription.

Obviously you wil only see the benefit of a HD channel by connecting your HD receiver to a HD TV via the HDMI Hi Def cable. But you can still watch HD channels on a non HD TV via scart - obviously this will not be in HD tho!

Note: C4 HD is only available with a sky viewing card at the moment

Freesat has only been going for just over a year now, and there are only just over 100 channels on the official Freesat programme guide. Howver, you can add any other free to air (ie unscrambled) channels by putting your Freesat box into Non Freesat mode...effectively giving you another channel list with channels not on the Freesat list.

So for example Sky News is not on the Freesat list, but by scanning frequency 12207 v you can add it to your nonfreesat list!

Freesat and Sky receiver use esxactly the same frequencies and satellite as each other, so if you cannot get a channel on a sky receiver now, you will not get it using a Freesat receiver either.

And to be honest I would recommend the Humax HD Freeesat receivers, they have a very good tuner inside them, but if you can go for the Freesat HD+ that has a built in hard disk receorder allowing you to, with two cables from the LNB on the dish, to watch one channel and record another at the same time - just like Sky+ but without the subscription!

For info : there are three versions of Freesat receivers
Standard Definition – Grundig appear to be the best - about £50 in the UK
Freesat HD – Humax Foxsat Freesat is the best – about £150 in the UK - as above but you can get BBC HDand ITV HD
Freesat HD – Humax Foxsat Freesat+ - about £250 -300 in the UK - as above but you get built in hard disk for recording

look at www.joinfreesat.com as on the right hand side of the sit ethey have a listing of all the UK stores that have the best deals for freesat receivers....

Hope this helps...i rarely venture out of the Spain part of the forum!!